New Delhi [India] July 20: Vice President and Rajya Sabha (RS) Chairman Hamid Ansari on Thursday accepted Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Supremo Mayawati’s resignation from the House after it was submitted in the prescribed format. On Thursday, Mayawati handed over hand-written resignation letter to Ansari, which he accepted.

According to the Rajya Sabha’s Rules of Procedures and Conduct of Business, a member who intends to resign his seat in the Council shall intimate in writing under his hand addressed to the Chairman, his intention to resign his seat in the Council. If a Member hands over the letter of resignation to the Chairman personally and informs him that the resignation is voluntary and genuine and the Chairman has no information or knowledge to the contrary, the Chairman may accept the resignation immediately.

Mayawati, whose RS term was to end in April 2018, had on Tuesday walked out of the Upper House of the Parliament alleging that she was not allowed to speak on the atrocities against the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh.
Mayawati was allotted three-minute time to speak and she started speaking on the atrocities against the Dalits in Uttar Pradesh. However, after her allotted time elapsed, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien stopped Mayawati that angered her to the extent that she walked out of the House and resigned.

After submitting her letter of resignation to the Rajya Sabha secretary general Shamsher Shariff’s office at around 5 p.m., Mayawati told reporters: “Jab satta paksh mujhe apni baat rakhne ka bhi samay nahi de raha hai toh mera isteefa dena hi theek hai (If the ruling party is not allowing me to speak, then it’s better to resign).” However, Mayawati’s resignation was not accepted for not being in a prescribed format. In her resignation letter, she detailed the morning’s incident as the reason for her decision, which was against the Parliamentary norms. A motive or reason can’t be a basis of a Parliamentarian’s resignation. (ANI)